We're described as Citizen Journalists somewhat akin to CBC's Fifth Estate of "investigative journalism, to challenge assumptions and question conventional wisdom". Where news media fight amongst themselves for the best ratings and dollars, blogs exist as "pages" pulled together by a common cause in hopes of finding some traces of truth in amongst the word of the highly paid political script writers (spin doctors) of the government, in this case, the very much provincial BC Liberals.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

"In the 1980s, Bill Bennett's Social Credit government said the toll was meant to pay for fast-tracking construction of the Hope-to-Merritt section. But when that amount was paid off in 2000, the fees remained."

Gordon Campbell is down in the polls, so he does something that was totally unsuspecting, he acts to put a spin on his re-election chances of winning a third mandate as the Premier of British Columbia by giving us something that was meant to be ours eight, long, years ago by his buddy Bill Bennett.

Why is it that where the Interior (Kelowna) of British Columbia is concerned their bridges and highways are being built toll free whereas down here on the coast, we are being told that any new bridges will be tolled....... with a provisio that they would be paid off in 35 years, with no guarantee that the fees won't be bumped up as time passes?

Page A6, High gas prices: Are the causes more to do with the Republicans using the hurricaine season to parlay their investments into bluer chip stocks than caring about those who live, and die, in the path of Mother Earth's predictable destructive forces of nature? Dick Cheney VP Oil Baron; Condaleezza Rice Director of Chevron (formerly Texaco); Sarah Palin from oil rich reserves of Alaska.....

Page A11, Dion Liberals go Green on paper aka "Dion hails Campbell for carbon tax", not in reality: BC Liberal Gordon Campbell has felt the wrath of the public on various fronts whether it be a Friday Press Release which gave way to announce Deputy Ministers and their Assistants recieving hefty raises while he flew off to the Beijing Summer Olympics in a private jet for 12, but carrying only six passengers. To save the Earth from global warming the Premier enacted legislation in which he and his former Finance Minister, Carole Taylor, called it as being a neutral Carbon Tax. He should have realized the bad optics of going in a private jet when public means were readily available. As Dion departs from Vancouver he is captured on film waving to the little people from his pulpit before he enters the door of a chartered 737 Liberal jet...... what! Air Canada and West Jet has no flights avaibable during an election?

Page A13, Translink spending $1,000,000 to find out how to waste taxpayers money by announcing a survey to be carried out by the Mustel Group on a Regional Trip Diary Survey. Note this information was not included in the A13 article: the same survey was conducted in 1994 and 1999 and in 2000 the "Transportation Data Collection Summary Report" was done by the University of British Columbia with the last update having been completed in 2004.

Page A20, "Being stuck in traffic is so frustrating but remember patience" - written by Mark Tonner, VPD employee. "....I'm a union guy myself, earning wages impossible to achieve any other way". Excuse me MR. Tonner but that was same line that Gordon Campbell used to justify the pay raises that he gave to his Deputy Ministers and Assistant Deputy Ministers after he arrived back on Canadian soil to justify the unexpected salary boosts following hard on the heels of a similar raise of just last year. Note 1: 18% of BC workers are unionized but it takes 82% of non-union workers right across all of British Columbia to pay those 18%, especially the ones who are public service employees. Note 2: Working conditions have been so harsh under the BC Liberal govenment that they have driven the brightest away from the government payroll to Crown Corporations which pay a higher price, at the expense of BC taxpayers.

Page A24, Editorial page, "Who said anything about openess and transparency?"
Gee whiz guys but how could anyone be "heartened" with the BC Liberals releasing a few bits of documents from the contract agreement between the BC Liberal Caucus and IBM? In the past four years, and counting, the BC Liberals have proven countless of times to Justice Bennett that they rarely release any documents at all. The BC Rail trial is nearing five years and the day after July 19, CN Rail can purchase for One Dollar, any BC Rail Lines that it has decided to discontinue using. eg. Lucrative West Vancouver real estate can be flipped overnight from being a railway bed to a six bedroom mansion.

Page A25, "The Premier's failure to hold fall session smacks of cowardice" Hmmmm. Do I spy with my little eyes that the photo of the Premier, standing in the Legislature, has his fingers crossed behind his back? Wikipedia says: "The supposed loophole of crossing one's fingers whilst making a promise is usually exploited by school-aged children."

A32, "Ike slams into U.S. coast" "....Oil refineries along the western shore of Galveston Bay may have been spared the worst of flooding". NOTE: The Lone Star State has the most petrochemical facilities in the world which drives our oil prices up every time a hurricane strikes North America.

In the paragraph titled "Numbers of Offences" on page 2, it goes a long way to explaining why the numbers are the lowest in 30 years.

eg. if one spray can is used to vandalize 14 cars there is only one offence;

eg. if one person murders three people three offences are recorded;

eg. if three persons murder one person there is one offence.

The latter explains why GANG crime statistics are down in each municipality (page 2) right across British Columbia?

UPDATE:
NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

2008PSSG0043-001306

Aug. 26, 2008
Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General

CRIME RATE IN B.C. DROPS TO LOWEST IN 30 YEARS

VICTORIA – Crime reported to police is down in B.C. for the third year in a row. The latest report from the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics shows declines in violent crime, homicides and property crime for an overall decrease of eight per cent from 2006 to 2007.

“Our government has made substantial investments in policing and public safety,” said John van Dongen, Solicitor General and Minister of Public Safety. “Since 2001, we have increased the annual policing budget by $128 million, and returned $250 million of traffic fine revenue to local governments to support their crime-fighting efforts. We have invested $44 million in PRIME, which gives police instant access to information to help fight crime, and created the Civil Forfeiture Office to take the profit out of illegal activity.”

In B.C. in 2007, the number of reported crimes, and the per-capita crime rate, declined in all categories: crimes against persons (violent crime including robbery); crimes against property (including break and enter and vehicle theft) and ‘other’ crimes (such as vandalism, prostitution and counterfeit currency).

In 2007, a total of 457,008 Criminal Code offences were reported, almost 35,000 fewer offences or seven per cent less than reported in 2006:

· There were 1,182 fewer violent offences which led to a four per cent drop in the violent crime rate – a new 20-year low. In 2007, homicides dropped by 19 per cent with 20 fewer than reported in 2006.

· Declines were reported in all property-crime categories in 2007 resulting in a nine per cent drop in the property crime rate.

· The number of motor vehicles stolen dropped by one-third from 2003 to 2007 – a 30 per cent decline.

“The Bait Car program has been extremely effective in driving down vehicle theft and we are working on reducing property offences even further with our Community Court and Prolific Offender projects,” van Dongen said. “However, we understand there is still work to be done, particularly with high-profile gang shootings and drug offences which fuel organized crime. That is why we are developing the Community Safety Strategy and have devoted $53 million in federal funding towards gang violence and organized crime.”

The crime reports are located at: www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/police_services/publications/